The present invention relates to semiconductor devices, and more specifically, to fabricating semiconductor devices having close ground rules.
Semiconductor devices such as, field effect transistor devices are often arranged on a semiconductor substrate. Methods for fabricating such devices include forming gate stacks on the substrate and active source and drain regions adjacent to the gates stacks. The gate stacks are often arranged in parallel crossing a number of active regions. During fabrication, the gate stacks may be cut or trimmed to form a desired arrangement on the substrate.
Often an insulator or dielectric layer is deposited over the active regions of the devices. Cavities are formed in the insulator layer to expose the active regions, the cavities are filled with a conductive material and planarized to form conductive contacts.